How I increased my monthly income 44% without launching a new product

Why do so many business owners turn to flash sales, a rotating door of new products, and spending gobs of money on Facebook ads to increase revenue, when there are other growth strategies that involve much less work, cost nothing, and don’t cheapen your brand?

Just over 18 months ago, I increased my monthly income by more than 44% without launching a new product or service, or doing any advertising of any kind.

My average monthly sales through May 2014 was $16,739. By August, that shot up to $24,609.

Instead, I made three simple, yet profoundly powerful tweaks to my business that you can implement this weekend. Over time, you will see great results pile up as well.

Today, I want to walk you through all three.

1. Put the spotlight on your reader

At its core, every business involves a simple transaction. Money changes hands as a product or service is delivered.

In my case, my products are online courses that teach people how to record and mix really good sounding music in their affordable bedroom studios. I sell information. Plain and simple.

That being said, many of my early sales pages were just that — both plain and simple in their communication.

Take a look at one of my old sales pages.

Within just a few lines I’m already talking about the product and why it’s so great.

There was nothing inherently bad or wrong about them. They clearly stated what the course was about, who it was for, and why it was a smart purchase. And of course it stated the price, and included a big “Buy Now” button.

And the great thing — these sales pages made me money.

Sales had been coming in month after month on pages like this for about 4 years. I was earning a very good living. There’s nothing tricky about business; you simply need to offer tremendous value to people and solve one of their challenges or frustrations. My courses were doing just that.

But by simply changing the words you use to sell your products, you can drastically increase revenue.

Learning a lot about the psychology of words from guys like Ramit Sethi, I decided to try my hand at rewriting the sales copy for my three most popular courses. And this time instead of simply conveying information about the product, I decided to put the spotlight on the potential customer.

This is key. I spent way more time (i.e. wrote more words) at the beginning of the sales page focused on the reader and identifying their biggest pains, challenges, and frustrations as they relate to my niche. I also articulated their biggest hopes, dreams, and goals related to the topic of recording music.

Take a look at one of my newer sales pages.

Notice how much time I take to articulate the pain point here.

This immediately draws them in as they say, “Yes! This guy gets me!” Because don’t we all like talking to people who understand us at a deep level? Don’t we trust them more?

While many of my competitors use their words to harp on how many hours of HD video their courses include, and how much extra “stuff” you get when you purchase, I instead use my words to focus on the customer. What do they want? What are they frustrated with? What is going on inside their heads?

By spending more of your sales pages connecting with the potential customer at this deep level, you create the trust and credibility that makes him want to keep reading to discover your “solution” to his problem.

And because you understand his problem and make sure he knows it, when you offer your product (the solution), he cares little about the features, what’s included, or even the price for that matter. All he cares about is the solution that you can offer him.

To do this with your current lineup of products or services, try this: Send out an email to your mailing list, or reach out to your fans or followers on social media and ask them two questions:

• What is your biggest frustration or challenge [related to your niche] right now?
• What are your biggest hopes and dreams [related to your niche] this coming year?

The answers you get will be worth thousands of dollars to you as you gain deeper insight into the minds of your customers.

2. Offer supersized options

One of the most classic techniques for increasing sales ever is also the simplest: upsells.

If you’ve ever been to McDonald’s and ordered a hamburger, then you’ve witnessed quite possibly the most profitable upsell ever: “Do you want fries with that?”

Another variation is when you order a combo meal and they ask you, “Do you want to supersize that?”

Some people will answer “No” to both of those questions. No harm done. But many people will say “Yes.” Instant increase in sales.

You see, at McDonald’s, people have already been convinced they want the product. They are prepared to part with their money and they know what they are getting. In this moment they are in a buying mood.

At the point of sale, employees have been trained to offer the customer something more as an option. The customer wasn’t planning on spending more, but because it’s a desirable upsell and they are about to part with their money anyway, it’s a no-pressure situation with pretty high conversion rates.

If you pay attention, you’ll see upsells everywhere you go.

Oddly enough, I was very aware of upselling as a business strategy, yet I wasn’t doing it in my own business. For years I simply offered each of my products in one version. One price. One option. One size fits all.

Big mistake.

Silly me, just offering my course at one price point.

I finally got smart and decided that it couldn’t hurt to offer one or two more expensive versions of my courses and leave it for my customers to decide which was a good fit for them.

Take a look at one of my most popular courses, REthink Mixing. I had been selling this course at its original price of $99 for three years.

I still offer it at $99, but now I’ve added two other versions: one that costs $149 and includes bonus content and a custom mix critique from me (where I’ll actually listen to one of their songs and give them email feedback), and one that costs $349 and includes everything from the lower tiers plus a one-hour skype call with me.

If one person purchases the upper tier, it’s like almost 4 people buying the original course!

Few people go for the $349 version (although I sell some every month), but the cool thing is that roughly half of my customers go for the middle tier at $149. That means that I can still sell a $99 course that I made years ago, but now I can get a 25% boost in revenue from it (50% of the customers spending 50% more).

I’ve applied this upselling, supersized concept to just about all of my courses now, and it works great. You can easily do it, too.

What is your most popular product or service? Can you add a slightly more expensive version of it? What ways could you add more value to it that don’t take too much money or effort, but still allow you to charge 50-100% more for it?

One final thought: When you give people a choice of product or service tiers, you do something subtle but powerful. You shift the internal question for the customer from “Should I buy this?” to “Which one should I buy?”

That one simple mental shift is so profound, as it gets them thinking which one is a better fit. This moves them beyond whether the product as a whole is a good fit, and it can do wonders for your sales conversion, even if they go with the lower tier.